Éclairs – Pâte à choux success!

Victory! 😀I’m very happy to have finally succeeded in doing pâte à choux. I was beginning to think it was my baking nemesis. Ok I just failed two times, but still! Usually when you follow a recipe it works, but with pâte à choux it didn’t! So I read a lot about the subject and finally did it right!

Here is the difference between my second attempt and my third!

A little difference huh? My first try was just too runny, it looked like pancake batter 😉 The second attempt was too runny too, but a little less than the first time!

So here are my Éclairs. They are SO good! You can do all the variations you want with them. I did whipped cream and strawberries, chocolate glazed and whipped cream, profiterole style with chocolate glaze and vanilla ice cream. YUM!!! You can also sprinkle the glaze with everything you like: sprinkles, nuts, etc.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil.

Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly.

A slight crust will form at the bottom of the pan, it’s normal, just let it be.

Stir for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. This step is very important, I think it might be the crucial step where I failed the other times. The dough will look like mashed potatoes.

Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Wait until the dough cool down just below 140 degrees F (some say below 180 degrees F, mine was at 130 F and it worked just fine).

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added. This step is very important too. Don’t add another egg until the other one is completely incorporated into the dough. This recipe work well with the number of eggs indicated, but you might need to be critique about this step. If you see that adding another egg will make your dough too runny to pipe then don’t. Multiple factors can account for the difference in the number of eggs needed.

In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

Pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep it ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Comments

They’re great, Marjorie. The strawberry one looks so fresh and inviting and I’d so love to be eating one of them right now… midnight cravings, again! And the chocolate ones are a classic. The first time I made choux, I made profiteroles and they came out perfect. Not sure if that was the recipe or I got lucky but I weigh everything.

I can’t wait to try the strawberry ones since I love strawberries so much. In fact, I’m off to get a bowl right now [at 1am lol]. I might make a mixture of them both like you and I’ll let you know how I get on when I create them (as I’ll be blogging them too).

Wow! This looks great. I have a lot of jams after a streak of canning and I am thinking of using them as filling for these really delicious eclairs. I will still be using the chocolate glaze. I love the choco-fruity flavor on my eclairs. I am hoping I’ll have mine as pretty as what you have in the pictures.
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These eclairs are beautiful! I have always been intimidated by making them, I am sure I would have quite a few more tries at getting them right than you did ;)! Love all of the variations you show here!

I actually tried making eclairs earlier with a different recipe and the mixture was extremely runny. I’m not sure if it was the recipe or me but there were 2 less eggs in the recipe I was using. I then found your recipe and they turned out absolutely perfect! Thank you so much, I have been wanting to make these for a while, and everyone says they are so difficult, but your recipe was so easy! Thanks again… off to indulge in one right now! 😀